Browsing by Author "Zhou, Shan"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Environmental Justice and Green Schools—Assessing Students and Communities’ Access to Green Schools
    (Wiley, 2019-10) Zhao, Shuang; Zhou, Shan; Noonan, Douglas S.; School of Public and Environmental Affairs
    Objective We investigate equity in the distribution of green schools, what kind of student populations they serve, and what kinds of communities host them. Methods Leveraging national school enrollment data (2000–2014), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design data, and communities’ characteristics data from 2010 U.S. Census, we estimate logit models to examine the association between green schools and student and community demographics. Results Higher percentages of minorities in both student population and hosting neighborhood are associated with greater likelihood that new schools are green. New schools in more affluent and less educated communities are less likely to be green. Conclusion There is a lack of evidence for environmental injustice in students’ and communities’ access to new green schools in the United States. New schools serving lower‐income and minority families and children are more likely to be green, although environmental justice indicators such as education show somewhat “unjust” patterns.
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    Justice Implications of Clean Energy Policies and Programs in the United States: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration
    (MDPI, 2019-01) Zhou, Shan; Noonan, Douglas S.; School of Public and Environmental Affairs
    This paper offers both theoretical and empirical analyses to explore energy justice from a policy perspective. We first propose a framework that explicitly connects core functions of clean energy policy instruments (i.e., regulation, financial incentive, government provision, information, and education program) to philosophical groundings of energy justice—distributive, procedural, and recognition justice. To empirically explore distributive energy justice, we examine the racial and socioeconomic disparities in three government-driven clean energy programs in the United States, including (1) the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) smart-grid investment grant (SGIG); (2) utility smart-meter roll out programs; and (3) city government adoption of green buildings. Results showed that the amount of ARRA funding awarded to utilities was closely related to racial composition. Inequalities were also found in utility smart-meter programs. Utilities operating in communities with a larger Hispanic population were less likely to initiate smart-meter roll out. The intensity of smart-meter technology implementation was positively correlated with education levels. Our third empirical case showed that government procurement policy can improve distributive equity for energy-efficient buildings. However, its spillover effects on the private sector can result in more adoptions in areas with fewer minorities and more highly-educated residents.
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    Making Smart and Sustainable Infrastructure Projects Viable: Private Choices, Public Support, and Systems Constraints
    (Cogitato Press, 2017-09-08) Noonan, Douglas S.; Zhou, Shan; Kirkman, Robert; School of Public and Environmental Affairs
    Sustainable cities will require major infrastructure investments coupled with widespread behavioral change. Examples of smart, green technologies abound, but evidence for actual use lags. This partly owes to the tension between public support and private choices: individuals thinking as members of the public may see solutions as smart for the city, but thinking of their private interests may see those same solutions as not smart for themselves. This also owes to the disconnect between private and public choices, on the one hand, and the workings of complex systems, on the other. Even if public and private interests align, existing built environment systems may resist change. This article examines public perception and use of the Atlanta BeltLine, a pioneering sustainability initiative to transform the auto-dependent city into a greener, denser city. Analyzing a general public survey reveals widespread support for the BeltLine alongside reticence from residents to change their commute or greenspace use. The findings also show that drivers of public support and prospective use of the BeltLine differ. Public support may be insufficient if individual use decisions do not follow. Yet, private adoption decisions may not follow until and unless the systems in which they are embedded are already changing.